了解老年癡呆癥早期損害程度的最新成像工具

了解老年癡呆癥早期損害程度的最新成像工具

New imaging technology allows scientists to see the widespread loss of brain synapses in early stages of Alzheimer's disease, a finding that one day may help aid in drug development, according to a new Yale University study.

耶魯大學的一項最新研究表明，新的成像技術使科學家能夠看到阿爾茨海默病早期大腦突觸的廣泛缺失，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)有一天可能有助于藥物開發(fā)。

The research, published May 13 in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, compared the density of synapses, which transmit signals between neighboring brain cells, in people with early stages of Alzheimer's with those of people who have no evidence of the disease. As expected, the loss of synapses in those with an early stage of Alzheimer's was particularly high in areas surrounding the hippocampus, an area of the brain crucial to formation of memory, the scientists report.

這項研究發(fā)表在5月13日的《阿爾茨海默氏癥與癡呆癥:阿爾茨海默氏癥協(xié)會雜志》(Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of The Alzheimer's Association)上。研究比較了患有阿爾茨海默氏癥早期患者和沒有患病證據(jù)的患者的突觸密度?？茖W家們報告說，正如預期的那樣，早期阿爾茨海默氏癥患者的海馬體周圍的突觸損失尤其嚴重。海馬體是大腦中對記憶形成至關重要的區(qū)域。

"However, our new methods enable us to detect widespread synaptic losses thoughout the brain," said Yale's Adam Mecca, assistant professor of psychiatry and first author of the paper. "This gives us confidence that we may use these results as a biomarker outcome for therapeutic trials, which could help speed development of new drugs to combat the disease."

耶魯大學精神病學助理教授、論文第一作者亞當·麥加說：“然而，我們的新方法使我們能夠檢測出大腦中廣泛存在的突觸丟失。這給了我們信心，我們可以將這些結果作為治療試驗的生物標記物，這將有助于加快開發(fā)新的藥物來對抗這種疾病。”

To get a clearer picture of the early effects of Alzheimer's, the researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of a protein found in almost all brain synapses. Previous imaging technologies had been able to show in broad strokes the loss of brain tissue or reduced brain metabolism in Alzheimer's. However, the new PET scans show the distribution of synaptic damage, a more specific disease pathology present at early stages of the disease, the authors say.

為了更清楚地了解阿爾茨海默氏癥的早期影響，研究人員使用正電子發(fā)射斷層，掃描(PET)對幾乎所有腦突觸中的一種蛋白質進行成像。先前的成像技術已經(jīng)能夠在大范圍的中風中顯示阿爾茨海默氏癥患者腦組織的喪失或腦代謝的減少。然而，作者說，新的PET掃描顯示了突觸損傷的分布，這是一種在疾病早期出現(xiàn)的更為特殊的疾病病理學。

"These methods will allow us to examine synaptic loss at still earlier stages of disease -- when people have evidence of Alzheimer's pathogenesis but have not yet manifested symptoms," said Christopher van Dyck, professor of psychiatry, neurology, and neuroscience, and senior author of the study.

精神病學、神經(jīng)病學和神經(jīng)科學教授、該研究的資深作者克里斯托弗·范·戴克說：“這些方法將使我們能夠在疾病的早期階段——當人們有阿爾茨海默病發(fā)病的證據(jù)，但還沒有表現(xiàn)出癥狀時——檢查突觸的丟失。”。

The Yale team recently received a grant to conduct more synaptic imaging and relate synaptic loss to other disease markers for Alzheimer's, including amyloid and tau accumulation.

耶魯大學的研究小組最近獲得了一筆撥款，用于進行更多的突觸成像，并將突觸缺失與阿爾茨海默病的其他疾病標記物聯(lián)系起來，包括淀粉樣蛋白和tau蛋白的積聚。